Intel warns channel of price cuts on 4 March

Confirms roadmap pricing plan

Intel will cut prices of certain CPUs next month, reducing the cost of processors sold through its channel of authorised distributors to end users by Intel Product Dealers, and to OEMs by up to 19 per cent.

The price cuts kick in on 4 March, which is what we expected from the Intel CPU roadmap we saw not so long ago. There are very slight differences from the prices we published recently, largely due to Chipzilla's reaction to the vagaries of supply and demand, but the cuts are in line with expectations.

So, the Pentium 4 - bundled with two 64MB "800 MHz non-ECC RDRAM modules" - will come down in price by two, three and one per cent for the 1.5, 1.4 and 1.3GHz parts, respectively. The chips are currently priced at $644, $440 and $336, respectively, according to channel sources.

The prices of the PIII at 1GHz, 933MHz, 800MHz and 750MHz will drop 11, seven, 11 and six per cent, respectively. The 733MHz part will also see its price cut six per cent.

That said, we didn't expect Chipzilla to cut Celery prices, but such a move is now on the cards. The 800MHz part will see the biggest cut, 19 per cent. The 766, 733, 700 and 667MHz Celerons will fall eight, six, five and eight per cent, respectively. ®